This month's book reviews

A kids' adventure novel about the search for "bigfoot"

Dylan Hitchcock's dad came home one day with a minivan load of hunting equipment - sleeping bag, tent, Coleman lantern and stove, playing cards, compass, maps, binoculars, long johns, rifle and cartridges, down vest, boots, sheath knife, and more. The big surprise was that Dylan's dad had never been hunting and, as far as Dylan knew, had never fired a gun before.

Dylan finds out later that his dad didn't go deer hunting at all. He joined a group of guys that were searching for Sasquatch, or the legendary Bigfoot. They were doing their search on Mount Saint Helens, which is an active volcano! Dad returned from the trip all scratched up and wouldn't talk about what went on. He just said they didn't see any deer.

A few months later, when Mrs. Hitchcock has left for Egypt as part of her job, Mr. Hitchcock prepares to leave again on another hunting trip. Dylan, who is now fourteen, decides he can't let his dad go off on such a trip again without his going along to help take care of his dad, who is anything but an outdoorsman. But the only way Dylan can go is to find someone to take him, since his dad refuses to let him go along. Luckily, he meets a retired biologist, Samuel Johnson, who also believes the Sasquatch story, but wants to protect the legendary creature or creatures from the hunters.

There are lots of complications that come up in Dylan's attempt to protect his dad from harm. The big question is whether there is really a Sasquatch in the first place. Of course there is another big question - is Mount Saint Helens going to erupt while all these guys are searching for Bigfoot?

A girl in Gaza City endures Israeli
occupation and Palestinian violence

Malaak finds comfort in feeding a wild bird that takes seeds from her open hand. Somehow she imagines the bird is a messenger from her father who disappeared a few weeks before. Malaak spends much of her day on the roof of the small family home hoping to see her father coming back. Her mother tries to hold the rest of the family together. She grieves for her missing husband and worries about her daughter who has not spoken since the father's disappearance.

The best that the family can hope for is that the father has been falsely imprisoned by the Israeli soldiers and at some point will be set free to come home. The unthinkable is that he might have been blown up in the terrorist bombing of the bus he took to Jerusalem.

Malaak is eleven years old. Hend, her older sister, is sixteen and is a great help to their mother. Hamid, her twelve year old brother, wants to be a member of the intifada, kids who throw stones at the Israeli soldiers and shout insults at them whenever possible. These kids think the terrorist bombers are heroes that are fighting in the only way they can to free their countrymen. The mother and her two daughters fear that Hamid may be killed or imprisoned. His mother tries to get Hamid to promise that he will not engage in intifada activities, but he continues to roam the streets of Gaza City with other boys of his age.

The reader of "A Stone in My Hand" will experience the bleak and hopeless existence of those living under occupation. The author does not take a position in support of either side - the Israelis or the Palestinians. But the reader will come out of the experience with a better understanding of the people that we hear so much about in our newspapers and on television newscasts.

Old-timers in a barbershop mentor an inner city teenager

Jimmy Lynch lost his temper in a fight with another teenager. He ended up in court charged with assault. He faced a sentence of six months in a youth facility. Mr. Duke Wilson, who ran a neighborhood barbershop in Harlem, volunteered to accept Jimmy in a community mentoring program. When the judge gave Jimmy the choice of working for Duke Wilson or being locked up for six months, Jimmy decided it was much better to work for the old barber.

The barbershop was called Duke's place. Jimmy and another kid named Kevin, also in the mentoring program, called it the "Torture Chamber." Actually, it wasn't so bad. The boys simply had to help keep the shop clean. They had to sweep up and wash windows and things like that. They were expected to show up for work on time, even a little early each day. What the boys didn't like was that Duke and the regular patrons in the shop were always on the boys' cases. If they were a few minutes late or were a little sloppy, they heard about it. The boys knew if they didn't show some degree of respect, Duke could have them sent off to the youth facility.

The old guys in the shop discussed everything. Some of them were former owners of small businesses in Harlem. They talked a lot about the old days when young people could be trusted and were courteous and willing to work. Jimmy and Kevin thought they were being preached to by old guys who couldn't remember what it was like to be young.

Kevin especially resented what went on in the shop and ended up getting into trouble with the law again. Kevin had made fun of Jimmy for taking too seriously some of what he was hearing in the shop. Even though Jimmy didn't like Kevin, he went out of his way to show him support when Kevin had to go back to court. Jimmy realized that what he was learning in the barbershop would keep him out of trouble. The old guys were providing a good "Handbook for Boys."

A New York girl adjusts to new
members of her family living in Australia

Annabel is twelve and lives with her mother in New York. She is still trying to get used to the idea that Jack, her father, is married to someone else and living with his new family half a world away. She is shocked when her mother, Angelina, tells her that she is to spend Christmas vacation with her dad, his new wife, and her step-brother and sister in Australia. There is also a new baby half-sister to Annabel.

Annabel arrives in Sydney with a chip on her shoulder. She is determined not to like "the steps" because she thinks they have stolen away her father. She is angered even further when she finds that the kids in the Australian family all called her father "Dad". She had always just called him "Jack." Just because they seemed to lavish love and attention on her wasn't going to weaken her resolve to try to steal back her dad and get him to return to New York.

She finds her step-sister, Penny, doesn't know how to dress and is really "uncool." Still, Annabel wasn't going to let the meek Penny be picked on by a couple of local girls who bullied her and made her cry. Playing the tough New Yorker, Annabel turns the tables on the bullies and starts Penny on a path of standing up for herself. Penny turns out not to be such a bad "sister" after all.

And so through a series of adventures in Australia, Annabel gradually, if reluctantly, comes to accept "the steps" as part of her real family. She also meets Ben, the "coolest" guy, and gets her first kiss. Maybe New York and Sydney, Australia, really aren't that far apart. It just might be fun to visit Australia regularly and have her new family members visit New York. It wouldn't hurt if Ben decided to visit New York as well.